Vegetable Purees

Last week, I finally decided that my family should have more vegetables in our diet. In a perfect world, all I would need is to buy more vegetables, either stirfry or steam it and serve as a side dish. Not much sweat. Since we are not living in that perfect world – apart from child #1, my kids will never even smell that veggie side dish. I need to be more creative. Getting some inspiration from Jessica Seinfeld’s Deceptively Delicious book, I’m now trying to incorporate veggie purees in almost everything I prepare.

To test whether this style will work with my busy schedule and of course budget, I started to give it a try.

Last Friday, when I went grocery shopping, I included 3 vegetables that are on sale – 2 lbs baby carrots, 1 head of cauliflower and 3 lbs zucchini for a total of less than $8. Taking off the 1/2 lb carrots and 1 lb of zucchini I steamed and served as a side dish for the steam we had for dinner, I began preparing my veggie purees.

While waiting for the water to boil, I cut the zucchini into rounds about 1/4 of an inch thick. Then, I threw it in the steaming basket and let it cook for about 9 mins. As the zucchini are steaming, I prep the carrots by just cutting it in half. When the zucchini is done, I just tranferred it to a big bowl to cool and start steaming the carrots for about 12-15 mins. Of course, I don’t like to waste any time, so I cut my cauliflower into florets ready to be steamed. Once the carrots are done, I steamed my cauliflower for about 12-15 mins too.

Once the veggies cooled a bit, I began to make the purees using a blender. I added some of the water used during steaming when the machine needs some help. Then I divided it into 1/2 cup portions. I decided to use Ziplock sandwich bags to keep my purees in because it uses less space in the freezer. After less than 2 hours of labor (excluding freezing), I’m able to come up with a huge batch. Now, it’s time for some cooking.